As the Waldo Canyon fire burned out of control Wednesday, stories emerged of harrowing escapes from the flames, heartbreaking realizations that homes were gone forever, and heroic efforts by residents of Colorado Springs to help their besieged neighbors. Here are some of those stories:

Brian Holcombe was talking on a cell phone with his wife when she got the news that the flames had crossed over the Flying W Ranch no more than 50 yards from their home.

“She just fell to the floor and she was crying out, it was just so devastating. She said it’s in our neighborhood, it’s in our neighborhood, Brian. It is on Majestic.”

Thirty minutes later, someone from their burglar alarm company called to say the alarm in their home on Majestic Drive had gone off, a sign that windows had broken.

The home they moved into six years ago might still be standing, but Holcomb doubts it survived the Waldo Canyon inferno gobbling homes in Colorado Springs.

Among the small items of incalculable worth that the Holcombes wish they had taken from the house is a box filled with notes they exchanged while courting.

“It never occurred to us that that was going to be the last time we saw our house.”

Jacki Grad and her family moved into their home in the Peregrine area a little more than a year ago.

Saturday her family was put on pre-evacuation notice and she packed their belongings. When they were told to evacuate Tuesday evening they were ready.

“When I went out to the car, ash was falling and it was glowing orange,” Grad said.

She said she drove about a quarter mile to a stop sign — and then sat there for about 45 minutes before traffic began heading down the mountain.

While people were concerned and in a hurry to evacuate, they remained polite, she said. It took several hours to complete a drive that usually takes seven minutes.

“I kept looking back to see if the flames were behind us,” Grad said. “When we reached I-25, I looked at the mountain and saw orange balls of homes burning. That’s when it turned dire.”

Grad and her family drove to Denver to get a hotel room, but everywhere they went was booked. She said she was told the closest available room was in Fort Collins.

After spending the night in the shelter at Lewis Palmer High School in Monument, Grad awoke to a fire that had doubled in size.

She feels confident that her home survived the night, but on Wednesday she stared at the plumes of smoke rising off the mountain.

“Today’s winds are concerning,” Grad said. “Clearly our community will be change forever. The question is are you going to be able to go back to something.”

The Rodriguez family’s truck could barely hold all the food it was carrying. Carts of milk and juice were buried under layers of canned goods, bread and snack food.

Lorena Rodriguez, her husband and three sons eagerly unloaded the food at the Red Cross shelter at the Southeast YMCA.

“It’s too sad. Some people worked so hard and now they’ve lost everything,” Rodriguez said. “This time it’s someone else — we could be the next ones.”

The Rodriguez family decided to help earlier Wednesday morning while they were eating breakfast together. From their kitchen table they went door-to-door in their Colorado Springs neighborhood collecting whatever they could.

Few people turned them away.

“I’m so proud of our community,” Rodriquez said.

Aaron Winter, manager of the Flying W Ranch that burned down near Colorado Springs, didn’t choke up when talking about the loss of the historic ranch on Tuesday. But he did when talking about the local law enforcement officers carrying out evacuations in the ranch area that includes a foothills subdivision.

“You’re out there with those dust devils swirling around. You’re getting hit in the eyes with ash. You’re coughing because there is so much smoke. But you can get in your vehicles and roll up the windows. Then you realize what those cops are going through. They are out there with little masks on, waving their arms in the thick smoke, trying to get everybody out of there safely.”

His voice cracked before he continued.

“I give props to those cops. What they are doing is amazing.”

Ardene Hagadorn remembers barreling smoke right before she fled her home on Garden of the Gods Road.

“I watched the smoke build at work all day,” Hagadorn said. “When I got home, it all turned into a whirlwind right then.”

Hagadorn packed what she could. Before she left, two officials had stopped by her home and told her that “she had to leave now.”

She went to a grocery store parking lot and called her mother. It took her hours to get out of the lot and to the shelter in Monument.

“It’s all scary and unbelievable,” she said. “But I’m here and we’re safe. Everything else can be replaced.”

Hagadorn did not know how close the fire got to her home overnight.

Ray Olvera did not think the flames would move over the ridge toward his home. Tuesday night when he looked out his window, he could not believe how close they were.

“The flames jumped the ridge and were heading right toward us,” Olvera said. “At that point it became an ‘Oh my God moment.”

He packed what he could.

“By the time I closed the hatch of my car it was black, pouring smoke and ash everywhere,” he said.

When he broke loose from the stop-and-go traffic on I-25, he drove to the shelter in Monument where he spent the night.

Mari Crannell drove from her home in Fountain to volunteer at the Red Cross shelter at the Southeast YMCA in Colorado Springs.

Crannell said she felt blessed that her son made it home from a camp site last weekend that was dangerously close to the fire.

“I have to help,” Crannell said, as she unloaded diapers from the back of a truck.

Crannell was at the shelter Tuesday night as evacuees began to arrive. When she returned to the shelter to check-in with the families Wednesday morning, some had learned that their homes were destroyed, most were still waiting for news.

“The not knowing is hardest for everyone,” Crannell said.

Wednesday, Crannell was with a woman when she found a photo of her charred home on the Internet. It was the first time the woman had learned her house had been destroyed.

“I gave her a big hug,” Crannell said. “I held her hand while she got the help she needed.”

In addition to her time, Crannell donated coolers, snacks and helped assemble food boxes for evacuees and firefighters. The community response has been overwhelming, Crannell said.

“I think our community is extremely strong. There’s been an outpouring of support I’ve never seen before.”

Sandra Fales wipes away tears as she pulls out clothes for her three children from the trunk of her car. Fales and her children spent the night at the Red Cross Shelter set up at the Southeast YMCA last night.

After watching the fire for hours, Fales was ordered to evacuate around 11 p.m.

“I watched it roll down the hill as it took out everything,” she said. “The flames just took it all out.”

Fales lives in the west side of the city, off Fillmore Street. She said she does not know if her home survived the night, but she’s not holding out hope.

“I’m just trying to compose myself before I go back inside to my kids,” Fales said. “It’s going to be 50 questions and I don’t have the answers.”

She said today is her 3-year-old daughter’s birthday.

Mark Stanislawski holds his wife Lucretia as she cries, trembling as she recalls Tuesday night’s evacuation from their home.

“Horrifying. It was absolutely terrifying watching those flames,” Lucretia said.

The two live in the Rockrimmon area and were ordered to evacuate shortly before 5 p.m. They spent Tuesday night in the YMCA shelter.

While she was driving south on I-25, Stanislawski watched the sky darken as she approached her home.

“It got blacker and blacker. When I got home it was pitch black and ash and embers were flying everywhere,” she said.

She could not call her husband because the smoke was so heavy it was clogging cell phone service. Within 17 minutes of arriving home, Stanislawski was out the door again with whatever she could pack.

More in Weather

People walking around urban areas today, enjoying the weekend’s warmer temperatures, may notice some light wind rustling their hair. Meanwhile, in the Foothills and mountain areas, hold on to your hats.

Bands of heavy snow and winds gusting to 60 mph on high passes are will create treacherous driving conditions in the mountains through Thursday and it could start snowing on the Front Range in the afternoon.